Why censor social media, when govt can't censor Sunny Leone

New Delhi, Dec 7: Talking about the government's recent take on online content in India, Anurag Thakur, Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) leader criticised the government and questioned government's motive behind censoring social networking sites like Facebook when it is not taking any action against "censoring Sunny Leone", an Indo-Canadian porn star who is currently a contestant in Big Boss Season 5.

"Why do they want to censor Facebook, when they don't censor Sunny Leone," said Thakur.

"Thousands of children are searching for her on internet and getting connected to porn sites," he said.

Supporting HRD minister Kapil Sibal over the issue, Shashi Tharoor, Congress leader and Lok Sabha MP said that certain restriction needed to be taken as Indian politics and society were not as matured in comparison to the West.

"I talked to Kapil Sibal, he told me that there were inflammatory images of gods, goddesses, prophets. When I saw those, I felt there is a problem. Free speech in India is not the same as in the West," he said at the conference.

"If certain people see these images, it can cause violence, we don't have a democracy so mature that we can ignore such things. So certain amount of restraint is necessary," he said.

"Inflammatory communal incitement is like a match at a petrol pump, why should we do that?" argued Tharoor.

"Social media should be given time to get mature," said Thakur arguing and contradicting the matter.

"There are options like watermarking," he said.

Kapil Sibal on Tuesday, Dec 7 said that the government was against the hosting of "objectionable" content and would taking steps to remove offensive and derogatory contents.